Vortex Alpha Release

For over a year now we've been working on a mod manager to replace the ailing Nexus Mod Manager. The premise was simple, attempt to combine the simplicity of the Nexus Mod Manager with the advanced functionality of Mod Organizer and create something that is accessible to all types of modders. Back in May of 2017 we named this replacement "Vortex".

A couple of weeks ago we did a limited Alpha release of Vortex to 1,000 users, many of whom have been extremely helpful in posting bugs and feedback for us to work from. As a result of this feedback, Tannin has released four new updated versions of Vortex since the initial release two weeks ago. These have included fixes for a number of bugs and some updates to the functionality. I want to thank those of you who used the software extensively and posted bugs via the feedback system within Vortex, like we requested. Your help has been extremely useful to us during this process.

We're now ready to open up the Vortex Alpha to anyone who wants to give it a go.

Before you jump in head first, I implore you to fully understand what "Alpha" means, what state Vortex is in, and whether Vortex is currently right for you.

What is Alpha software?

To save you a Google search, here's the first result for a description of Alpha software:

Alpha software is computer software that is still in the early testing phase. It is functional enough to be used, but is unpolished and often lacks many of the features that will be included in the final version of the program. The "alpha phase" of software development follows the early programming and design stages, but precedes the "beta phase" in which the software closely resembles the final version.

Since the alpha phase is an early part of the software development cycle, alpha software typically includes significant bugs and usability issues.

It's important we adequately warn you of the state of Vortex (as we are, right now!) because if you run to the forums or elsewhere to complain about Vortex breaking your mod install, and you didn't make any backups of your save files or game states, knowing full well what we're telling you right here and right now, we're honestly not going to have much sympathy. We're going to want to know about whatever bug is causing this issue and will work our hardest to fix it ASAP, but I want you to be under no illusions that this is Alpha software, and we're treating it like Alpha software with the expectation for there to be unfound bugs that will need fixing.

Who is this for? Should I use Vortex?

Ask yourself whether being an early adopter is right for you at this time, or whether it makes more sense for you to wait until Vortex reaches a more polished Beta or full release state. Considering we're being fully open about the fact Vortex will have bugs and is not in a feature complete state, do you really want to be using the software in this state? Are you going to get upset if it does not function properly or creates issues that mean playing your game is not possible until Vortex is updated or until you fix things manually? If so, this is NOT the right time for you to be using Vortex as your mod manager.

Are you competent enough to know how to backup your save games and modding folders, and able to rectify any issues manually or in another mod manager if Vortex doesn't work properly for you? Do you want to help us by providing constructive feedback and bug reports without getting emotional and rude? Are you patient and able to wait for fixes and functionality to be developed? Then we'd love it if you could download Vortex and give it a thorough run through, and we're looking forward to hearing from you.

Does Vortex replace NMM/MO/my current mod manager?

Right now? No. We're not recommending anyone fully switch to Vortex from their current mod management tools. We think it will get there in the not too distant future, but it's not there yet.

Many users in our testing group and in the limited Alpha we did over the past couple of weeks have been able to switch over fully. We do recommend that you try and switch over, but that you backup and keep whatever current mod manager you're using (and your mod setups/savegames attached to them) so if something goes wrong with Vortex, you can easily and quickly switch back so it does not affect your gaming.

With all this in mind, we're not officially replacing NMM on the site at this time. We're keeping the "Install NMM" button in the top nav, and the only place you're going to be able to download Vortex is from our own Nexus Mods game page, which will also hopefully include extensions for Vortex moving forward.

This, in itself, should tell you how we're treating this release of Vortex. This isn't an all singing and tooting release of Vortex to the masses where we tell everyone it's the best thing since sliced bread and that everyone should switch. This is still us releasing quietly, telling you that we're happy with the direction it's heading but we know that it still needs more time in the oven.

What type of people are you looking for during the Alpha?

We really want people to try Vortex and we're really grateful for any help you can provide in bug reports and functionality feedback. What we're looking for right now are individuals who are competent in modding their games, who understand the risks of using this Alpha software and are willing to be patient with bugs and possible missing functionality to help us develop something really good.

How long is the Alpha going to last?

We're aware that NMM was in a permanent Beta state and this was not ideal for anyone. We want to avoid that with Vortex, but we cannot give you a timeline or roadmap at this time.

Our initial focus is going to be on fixing bugs in the Alpha and addressing any issues that it brings to light. We'll then work on a roadmap moving forward, establishing what goals we want to hit before we're confident with it reaching Beta.

Is there any documentation?

Right now documentation that is ready for public viewing is very limited, but we hope to rectify that over the coming months. In the meantime, popular YouTuber Gopher is working on some tutorial videos that will introduce Vortex to users and help guide you through the process of using the software. I'll update this news post when his Introduction video is ready, and you can get further updates by visiting his channel.

Does Vortex include an import tool from NMM or MO?

Vortex installs as a separate application on your computer. Any existing installations and setups you have of NMM and/or MO will not be affected by you installing and using Vortex. The only thing that will be affected is how NXM (download) links are handled on the site, e.g. what application starts and downloads files when you click the "Download with manager" button on the site.

Vortex includes an "Import from NMM" and "Import from MO" functionality that will attempt to copy your mod setup from those respective mod managers. This is non-destructive and will not impact your setups.

Please be patient during the process, it might take a little while for Vortex to read your current mod setups if they're particularly large.

Because of the (now) archaic way that NMM handles files in the data folder, we recommend disabling any mods you have installed in NMM (or switching to an empty profile, that will in turn clear up any files NMM has placed in your game data folder) if your import to Vortex is successful. This is because Vortex and NMM both try to keep track of which files they've installed, and using multiple modding tools for the same game at the same time makes that difficult. If you need to revert back to NMM, you can simply disable Vortex and reapply your NMM profile to return your setup to how it was before.

As always, please backup your current modding setups in case the worst happens. Ensure you create a safe copy of your mod installations somewhere else so that you can restore from this backup in case of a problem, and ensure you know how to restore these backups properly before you attempt to use Vortex.

How should I provide feedback?

Vortex contains a feedback and bug reporting system built in to the software, which can be access from the menu in the top-right corner. If you experience issues while using the software please report them using these methods, providing detailed information about what you were doing at the time the problem occured. This is the direct line to Tannin and the fastest way of getting any bugs spotted and fixed.

If you post your bugs in the forums or elsewhere, without using the bug reporting tools in Vortex, it's honestly not helpful to us. Feel free to discuss any bugs elsewhere, but at least ensure you give us a proper bug report from within Vortex first (if you can!).

A note on feedback

Please keep in mind that, currently, Tannin is the only developer working on Vortex and as such, we need to manage his time carefully. To us, it's more prudent that he spends the vast majority of his time actually working on Vortex to improve it, because every hour he spends responding to user feedback is an hour he hasn't spent working on Vortex itself. So while it's my hope we can respond to as much as possible, please be aware it's unlikely we're going to be able to respond to all feedback. We will read it all, however.

A common thing we're hearing at the moment between the Vortex release and the release of our new site redesign is this concept of "you don't listen to us". I want to take this time to nip this silly notion in the bud right now.

There is a big difference between not listening to what some of our users are saying and not acting on what some of our users are saying/asking for/outright rudely demanding. I guarantee you, we read all the feedback we receive on Vortex and on the site, but not acting on that feedback does not mean we do not listen.

We might not act or change something that you or multiple users request for a number of different reasons and you should not expect to always get your way. We need to cater for a user base of over 14 million users, some of whom may completely disagree with what you're saying or have completely different wants and needs to your own. Yes, we want to try and cater for all users, but sometimes that simply isn't feasible or possible.

If we agree changes need to be made, or even contemplate them, then you need to be aware that our to-do list is years long, and acting on your feedback might not be placed right at the top of the pile (nor is it just going to be dumped at the bottom). This, once again, does not mean we "do not listen" or that your feedback is not valued. Thank you for your understanding.

Is Vortex open source? Where can I get the source code?

We plan to release the source code to Vortex as soon as possible. You will see the repos show up on GitHub, step-by-step, probably over a day or two. I shall update this news post and we shall post in the Vortex Code Development forums when they're ready.

I've read all of this and I'm sure I'd like to use and help test Vortex. Where can I get it?

Vortex can be found via the "Nexus Mods" game page where we've setup a special mod page just for Vortex.

270 comments

It is still quite the bug fest and not at all intuitive to me yet, but I see a lot of promise here. The abiility to sort out load order conflicts a la MO is brilliant. Though it doesn't change the name of the mod files to match the name of the mod yet, and other little things.

My only real issue was it failing on downloads constantly. other then that it's been pretty great.

Does any know the answer to the following:In Old Skyrim (32bit) we were limited to 255 plugins because 255 =FF in Hex and 32 bit programs can only access 2 hex registers (FF) (or something like that). If that's correct (or closely correct lol )does anybody out there know if Skyrim SE being 64 bit = FFFF (vs FF) = 65535 plugins, and what will Vortex mod limits be in this case?

The reason that didn't change is because Bethesda changed as little as possible when they ported Skyrim over to 64 bits. For the most part, only the memory management and rendering pipelines where changed. I don't even think Papyrus has access to more memory.

Ethreon thanks and DFX2K9 thanks for the more detailed response that I can now understand. So, it is unfortunate, that the entire code in not running at 64 bit.Oh well, the biggest problem was the limited memory availability, and at least that and the rendering pipelines have been brought into the realm of modern computing for this decade

IMO there are more reasons to use Vortex and Skyrim SE and those reasons will only increase but the reasons to use Old Skyrim and MO will only become less and less with each passing week. Time to smell the wind of change my friend Oh, but you do. Thats why your here trying to convince yourself why you shouldn't be

i'm relaxed on this topic. and the discussion about which combination is better is a silly one. sse and vortex will be a good and valuable combination, i'm sure! vortex will become (at least in plain numbers) the superior organizer with the advantage to be universal. sse is an option for new gamers and people who like vanilla versions or not interested in knowing how to configure a stable but beautiful oldrim with mo and nearly unlimited options to mod the game (including the risk of destabilizing it). simply compare the images on nexus and the amount of available mods to get an impression of the capabilities of both versions.the sse 64 bit advantage is practically marginal and leads also to some disadvantages while the most annoying oldrim problem - it's 32bit related disadvantage, the 4GB memory limiation - is already practically solved with enb mem hack.for skyrim players with a heavily modded stable and performant oldrim game sse is simply a mild but clear disappointment or step back, not mentioning the amount of work and time to port all mods (5 to 10% are ported to sse) while maintaining comparable stability and compatibility. the still existing mod number limitation is only one of the disappointments, the lack of full oldrim mod compatibility another. i fully understand newbies, not interested in trying any of the best oldrim and not sse compatible mods, to start with sse and vortex. they will never miss what others discovered, liked and will not miss in future. in my point of view vanilla skyrim is a kind of nice and buggy rpg. the opportunity to apply all the lovely nexus mods and to combine them makes it the unique gem at least for me while not having any complains in terms of stability. the stability discussion in most threads is in my eyes misleading because it does not take in account the number of applied mods and the quality of the applied mods and the inability of many people to cope with it and to sort out the buggy ones. mo works 99.9% errorfree. vortex will do it too. use what you want and what you like. oldrim will work errorfree with both (i suppose) if you know how to configure it. it is simply a matter of taste and your personal skills how to configure a system and a game like skyrim and if you know your abilities i'm sure you will be happy with all available and compatible combinations of game and organizer. apart from that i wish tannin and the nexus team all the best to make vortex the superior universal organizer as mo already is for oldrim and oblivion. vortex in a more advanced stage will replace mo, no doubt about that.

Well, for the most part I agree with you xrayy. I was and I still am a huge Fan of MO. At one time I was running well over 400 mods on oldrim with a little help from wrye bash, and I still use MO for my Enderal oldrim game, which is running about 200 mods. Many of these mod are not even supposed to work with Enderal, but I made them work So I am no amature here , and I'm sure there are plenty of "PRO's" that have also made the switch to Vortex at least for SE so I dont think its fair even at this early stage of development to characterize Vortex as being for amateurs. Other the the ability to select mod overwrites at the file level, (which , believe me I have complained about and see as a terrible shortfall that I hope will be rectified soon, at least in advanced mode) Vortex is every bit as powerful of a tool as MO is.Additionally, anyone that has not had at least one or two problems with the VFS used im MO causing improper installation of mods, or problems with tools and/or Patch mods not being able to properly work for the same reason, has not used MO to its limits and does not know there is this limitation with MO that Vortex was designed from the start to overcome. Nevertheless, I do agree with you for the most part, and I think you have already said you realize that Vortex will overtake MO as the number 1 Mod Manager for most people. However, I say that Vortex is a great tool for everyone not just amateurs, and at some point even the people that are hardened against change will come to realize that Vortex is (or soon will be) the better tool. On the other hand, If you have a build using MO running smooth, that's awesome. Game with that bro, I do. However, why not give Vortex a go on a new build, especially an SE build as there are limited mods (at the moment) available compared to Oldrin anyway. Game with Oldrin and MO, while building a new mod load with Vortex and SE. Absolutely, no problem with one interfering with the other this way as well I also think that soon there will be more people modding SE then Oldrin, and 5 years from now, SE will have more and better mods then oldrim ever had, and Vortex will be developed to a point far exceeding what was capable with MO.

sorry, i don't want to degrade pro's or vortex users to amteures, just want to say that if you already have played a beautiful modded oldrim - even as a modder - you can imagine how much work it will be (if ever possible) to port a modded stable le setup with 250 esp and 500 texture or other sort of mods to a new se setup using an alpha organizer software even if it is close to be perfectly stable. thanks and kudos to every pro who trys to support and tests the vortex platform while being aware of this more than tiny challenge. one thing to mo V1.311. i've never encountered any mo related limitation with skyrim le even with 254 esp installed and additionally hundreds of esp free mods. any single ctd and problem i encontered was a mod bug, conflict related or my own configuration mistake. even tes5all, tes5edit and fnis work glich free with mo. for the people who encounter microstutter while gaming i could give an advice that works 100% for me with capable hardware (minimum 980m gtx, 6GB better 8GB Vram, 16GB ram and i7 3Ghz, for le: win 7 64bit and avoid graphic cards with divided memory bandwidth like 970gtx with 4GB): unpack all bsa's including the vanilla ones, use a ssd, deactivate all not game relevant 32bit system tasks including antivirus and homecalling driver addons and i guarantee all microstutter will be history. this will work also with sse and vortex, you just don't have to kill the 32bit tasks to free memory. if your hardware is gsync or freesync capable even a heavily modded game should run smooth ;)

That's good advise about the micro stutter issue. I had problems with that at one time. In my case it was a Vsync issue an was not at all MO related in fact I think a lot of blame was placed on MO for a mariod of user errors. I also agree about using and SSD or two , especially when running a lot of high resolution textures. Additionally, I had/have been able to work thru most problems related to the VFS that MO uses because I understand what it's doing, therefore its only really a inconvenience not really a limitation, so you're right. MO and Vortex are both great tools and there is no reason to throw the baby out with the bath water (or throw away the champion because you don't like the cork idiom) so to speak for either tool. Good discussion.

You make it sound like I can use vortex for skyrim 32. Can I not? Or did I interpret that wrong? I don't have my laptop I was using for skyrim but I just built my first gaming desktop and waiting to get internet at home(i just need to stand the pole and have someone dumb enough to put the Sat on top) so I don't even have old skyrim or is the concern with migrating to the new mod manager?

No, I am not saying or implying that you cannot or should not use Vortex for Skyrim (Oldrin). I was simply agreeing with xrayy that if someone has already invested a lot of energy into his Oldrin setup with MO and it runs stable then stick with that. However, if you are just getting started with Skyrim SE (or any other game officially supported by Vortex including Oldrun); they should give Vortex a try. For me personally having Enderal modded Oldrun running stable on MO and using Vortex on Skyrim SE happens to work really well in that there are no Mod manager mod folder control issues or mod download control related issues because Odrun and Skyrim SE are separate games on Steam

If I was just getting started as you are I would use Vortex and Skyrim SE. However, you could also run SE on MO or Oldrin on MO or Oldrin on Vortex I just think that you will spend more time enjoying modding and playing Skyrim using Vortex and Skyrim SE.If you like making things more difficult then, feel free to join the die hards (myself included at least for Enderal Oldrin) modding Oldrin with MO but look forward to a lot of unstable gaming and save games that just will not load after spending months playing. Of course, those type of problems are avoidable if you know what your doing, but you don't yet. Or you can also avoid a lot of problems by using Vortex and SE as I advised, because SE is a hell of a lot more stable and with Vortex there is a lot less that can go wrong in the process it uses to install mods. Many will rightly point out how many more mods there is for Ordrin and that ENB for SE is not yet as good. For many the lack of hdt body physics in SE is a deal breaker. However, you have so much to learn and there are so many mods available even for SE, that you have plenty to do for awhile. By the time your ready for such things they will probably exist in SE anyway. I predict that within 2 years all the great mods of oldrim will exist in SE as well or something even better in its place

Have been using Vortex to reinstall FO4 after major computer crash and replacement. Have been very happy with it but have run into a couple of problems. The first and want appears to be rather important is my DLC files appear to to have a dependency issue. DLCWorkshop01 has loaded last throwing all except DLCRobot into a red warning sign. There does not appear to be anyway to manually reset these and LOOT does not do it either. Using red warning to reset user-list rule has no effect. Also, today for the first time I am getting LOOT cleaning symbols on these DLC that weren't there before.Also, when I installed the BodySlide mod through Vortex it installed just fine, but for some reason when using this mod the texture files appear not to be recognized by the program and you get the "no image" body in the preview screen of BodySlide. I can see all of the .dds files in the texture folder, but they are showing up in BodySlide. Set up the BodySlide tool in Vortex and it too worked just fine except for the texture problem. Again I have enjoyed the ease of use of Vortex and hope it continues to improve and expand. Know there's always problem in new software development, just wanted to let you know what I have experienced to date. Anyone out there have ideas on how I can resolve these problems, would appreciate the info...thanks

Does anyone have X Rebirth installed and manage to make Vortex to work with that game? I have GOG version installed on C:\Games\X Rebirth (SSD and system disk), Vortex (default install) properly find game, it properly shows correct game path and mod folder, but that thing just refuse to deploy any mod in game directory. Installed mods just sits on Vortex \mods folder and thats all! I have tried every possible thing that cross my mind - clean install of the game first in the same install path then in every possible partition, clean default install on Vortex, then custom install on different path, default settings in Vortex, custom settings (different path for ...\download and ...\mods folders), simlink, hardlink.... but with no luck at all. There is no deploy function worked with Vortex and my X Rebirth. I tried Vortex with Witcher 3 and Dragon Age and it works fine with them. Meanwhile i have X rebirth mods managed by NMM with no problem. That old and ugly thing do its job just fine.

After 0.13.5 update Vortex start to give me error the moment when it finds game and i give him command to manage the game. And the error says something precisely about deployment, just i dont get what it is about. As you see, my english is not that good and reading strange readings with strange words and strange numbers is beyond my knowledge. Of course, i submit report with that error, hope it will be of any meaning and help the team to look after that error.

Short version: does anyone have problem with that specific game or with proper deployment specifically.

Sorry I cannot help you with that Daering but there are a couple of things I have noticed after the last update : unable to launch SKSE from Vortex and when I finish playing, Vortex does not respond to any clicking but after a couple of minutes, so I can log out properly. Before, those two things were not happening, at least in my case. The SKSE part is happening to others as well ( based on posts ) but I do not know if the latter is just me. I am pretty sure is not my computer though. Everything else ( FNIS ), Nexus, etc closed instantly as soon as I click the exit or log out, but not Vortex. In reality, the situation with SKSE is not a major problem so I can launch it from my desktop icon but the latter, it is a pain in my ass to be waiting for Vortex a couple of minutes so I can log out. I hope this is fixed soon.

The ability print, or output a text file, with the mod list and plugin list.

Overall, I'm very happy with Vortex. I was kind of new to modding, but jumped right in modding Skyrim SE with NMM and the S.E.P.T.I.M. guide, and worked my way up to a fairly stable build with over 200 mods by the time Vortex came out.

My experience with migrating to Vortex was very good. There were some snags, but most of them turned out to be problems I created in my NMM build (following instructions to modify files, then not saving them properly back into their respective mod archive files, for example). Several problems were also exposed and fixed during the migration to Vortex, mod conflicts I wasn't aware of, and stuff. So now I have Skyrim SE running flat-out stable with 292 mods!

My biggest concern now is, should I delete my old NMM SkyrimSE game folder and free up 180Gb or so on my SSD!?

That's a serious question, is there any reason to keep it? I don't want to find out, down the road, that the futture Beta or Stable version of Vortex isn't compatable with my current (Alpha based) Skyrim SE build.

Anyway, Tannin - THANK YOU!!! So much, for all your work. Awesome job man!! Many, many thanks to you and the whole crew at Nexus!

What you need is a Junk drive. You can get a 1TB "old spinny type" hard drive for under $50 US. Just move stuff you might or might not need to it I keep a backup of all my Documents, Tax documents music and pictures, exc. on one as well and keep it on the shoe rack next to my front door, so that heaven forbid my house catches fire, I can grab it on the way out. I go through it about twice a year, deleting anything I dont need and re-backing up my files.

I'd like to add my support to some of "uglydemon's" suggestions as well. Especially the suggestion for

- New Column in the Mods menu: Sort by "author".

I've thought about that before, because I'd 'love' to support the mod author's for their work. But, if I donated a dollar for every mod I'm using, my modded Skyrim would cost me over $150.00. And, that 'just' for the mods, not including the original cost of the game. With the Authors grouped together, I could tell who's stuff I'm using the most of, and make a donation that reflects my appreciation of their work.

I realize I'm being lazy but I have a simple question. Is it possible to move all the mods from F:\Games\Nexus Mod Manager\FalloutNV\Mods to a similar path for Vortex? I suppose it's good I have Premium as DLing about 40GBs of mods again is gonna suck. I suppose it'll have a similar function of adding mods from FoMods and archives?

xnadler wrote: One addition that I think should be added involves FNIS. After you run FNIS through the Vortex you will get a pop-up asking if you want to confirm the changes it made. BUT you don't get that pop-up until the next time you install or enable a mod. The problem of course is that running FNIS is sometimes the last thing you do after installing mods, so the condition for the pop-up doesn't trigger.

So what I'm thinking is a potential error warning, simular to what Vortex puts up when there are potential mod conflicts would be a great way to allow the user to force the pop-up to ... well, pop up.

Jokermaniaque wrote: You can click the "Deploy Mods" button on the mod list tab to force Vortex to check for changes in mods, which will trigger the pop-up.Of course it won't solve the problem for the unaware users, but for now it's the best way I found to force the pop-up to appear.

xnadler wrote: Thanks, this is perfect.

But another comment on what I think would make this work better. I spent hours trying to figure out why FNIS wasn't working properly. The answer was I was undoing the changes it was making when I used the confirmation pop-up. The problem is the pop-up has what looks like an Apply button, which changes to an Undo button if you apply, followed of course by hitting the Confirm button. The problem is that these aren't Apply and Undo buttons, they're a toggle and hitting Apply turns it into Undo and visa versa. If these could be made more clearly toggles, that would be good.

@XnadlerAgreed, I accidentally did the same thing. They look like buttons you would click to apply the changes like a confirmation. But it's actually just a togglable option of what you want it to do after you click confirm. That for sure needs to be changed to be more clear.

Me too. I failed to notice it change to undo. Just clicked and hit confirm, twice.